WC's 2011's Top 5 Hurricane Overdue Cities article

[HurricaneJosh]

If August 1893 (Cat 2) happened again, you KNOW you would be on the first flight to JFK Seriously, that made landfall near the present day site of the airport, so that has to be considered within city limits I believe that cane traveled due north from just off the NC coast, actually take the 1938 track and translate it about 60 miles west and that is a very similar track. Maybe NYC needs a NNW track to get a direct hit, but the outer boroughs and western Nassau certainly dont!

I might have some curiosity about it. But one thing: it was reanalyzed as a 75-kt Cat 1-- not a Cat 2: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pdf/nws-nhc-6.pdf

Still a good impact for this region.

BTW I didn't find that as startling as a NY Times article I was reading, which basically indicated that not only had people forgotten about the hurricane, people had even forgotten about the existence of Hogs Island, until artifacts started washing ashore during the 1990s! It was basically our version of Atlantis!

Oh, wow-- very cool! Sort of like a NY version of Indianola, TX, in a way.

[A-L-E-X]

Here it is:

http://www.nytimes.com/1997/03/18/nyregion/queens-spit-tried-to-be-a-resort-but-sank-in-a-hurricane.html?src=pm

March 18, 1997

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The mysterious island began surfacing off the southern coast of the Rockaways around the Civil War, according to local lore and dusty historical pamphlets. Once it reached its full size in the 1870's -- about a mile long, a couple of hundred feet wide and 1,000 feet offshore -- it caused a stampede among developers.

For five cents, ferries carried pleasure-seekers to the island, where they changed into modest swimming costumes inside bathing houses. After dipping their toes in the cool Atlantic, they drank, ate and reveled at the island's restaurants. One restaurant, owned by a Patrick Craig, became a summertime favorite among Tammany Hall powerbrokers, who decided the fate of major New York City issues on this barrier island. But after storms battered it in the 1890's, the island sank into the ocean.

Such was the short, happy life of Hog Island.

Hog Island -- its shape resembled a pig's back -- was doomed to survive only in the oral history of Rockaway old-timers, remembered, if at all, as the would-be Atlantis of the New World. Then last year, a series of events as unusual as Hog Island's brief history collided to thrust it into the heart of hurricane research by a Queens College professor, Nicholas K. Coch, a 6-foot-7 1/2-inch man whose business card says ''forensic hurricanologist -- no category storm too small.''

On a routine field trip to study erosion in the Edgemere section of the Rockaways in Queens last spring, students of Professor Coch (pronounced kotch) stumbled on artifacts -- broken plates, beer mugs, bricks, coal, fragments of dolls and, ominously, the wick of a hurricane lamp -- embedded in the sand. After some detective work, the professor and his students discovered something that neither they, nor almost anyone else, knew: that a barrier island existed a century ago off the coast of Edgemere but was destroyed. And they came to believe the artifacts were a window onto that lost corner of New York.

Some, like the one in 1893, were forgotten, because the full force of the hurricanes hit areas that were sparsely populated at the time, like the southern shores of Long Island, Queens and Brooklyn.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami lists the August 1893 storm in its records, but few details survived, said Max Mayfield, a hurricane specialist there.

It was in the sand that Mr. Coch's students recovered about 100 pieces. Perplexed at first, the students surmised the relics were not from this century, recalled Tomas Liogys, 23. Then Lloyd Kiefer, 22, examined old maps and newspapers in which he found references to Hog Island.

Mr. Coch later assigned Edward Diaz, 22, to date the artifacts without informing him of Hog Island. A shattered aquamarine bottle had ''188-'' on it, with the last digit chipped off. Some pieces revealed their manufacturers -- ''Greenwood China'' of Trenton, N.J., was marked on one, for example; ''Wedgewood, England'' on another. From the breakdown of expensive and cheap ceramic fragments, Mr. Diaz believed it was possible to determine that they had come from a hotel or restaurant.

''My picture of the place is that it was for the average Joe,'' Mr. Diaz said.

Nothing is certain, of course, in recreating the past. Emil R. Lucev, born in the Rockaways 63 years ago and the historian for The Wave, the peninsula's 104-year-old weekly, said the artifacts could have come from west of Edgemere and Hog Island because the Army Corps of Engineers dredged in that area. Mr. Coch said that was possible, but because of the dates, the items were surely relics of the 1893 hurricane.

In recent months, a fuller picture has begun to emerge of Hog Island, which was created by the westward drift of the sea and sand. In the 1870's, owners of bathhouses and restaurants on the mainland found that their shore was no longer an ocean beach because of this new barrier island. Bitter lawsuits erupted over ownership of the island, especially between two Irishmen, who became known as the ''Everlasting Litigants,'' Mr. Lucev said.

''They settled it by drawing a line straight out into the water from the mainland,'' Mr. Lucev said.

Hog Island -- actually a peninsula also known as Far Rockaway Beach -- prospered. In 1917, Alfred H. Bellot wrote in ''History of the Rockaways'' that Hog Island, and especially the establishment run by Patrick Craig, had become the 1890's version of the Hamptons: ''Many conferences of great import to New York City took place in this out-of-doors annex to Tammany Hall, and it was at this time that the village was called familiarly in certain political circles, the Irish Saratoga.''

But everything changed on the night of Aug. 23, 1893. What the newspapers described as a hurricane, cyclone or gale, which had moved from south of Norfolk, Va., to New York in 12 hours, lasted through the morning and devastated the area, flooding lower Manhattan and uprooting more than 100 trees in Central Park.

On Hog Island, the damage was estimated at $80,000. ''The pavilions on Hog Island were smashed and washed away,'' The New York Times reported. ''Several bathing-houses adjoining Caffery's Cosmopolitan Pavilion were washed out and broken in pieces.''

Hog Island was also the site a dramatic rescue, according to The Times. Patrick Craig and his wife and daughter were trapped inside their ''frail cabin'' on the island. ''Death seemed imminent either from the raging waves or the falling timber.'' But a man named Stephen Stillwagon swam to the mainland, returned to Hog Island in a boat and put the family inside: ''They were swamped twice, but pushed on until at last they were rewarded by seeing Mrs. Craig, with her little one in her arms, step upon solid earth out of the reach of the hungry sea.''

Diminished, Hog Island re-emerged a few times in the 1890's. Some tried to rebuild on it. After a couple of northeasters, however, Hog Island sank into the Atlantic in 1902.

Over the years, Hog Island became shrouded in myth among Rockaway seamen and old-timers, some of whom attributed magical powers to it. In the late 1930's, Mr. Lucev said, children from a Brooklyn orphanage walked at low tide onto the shoals where Hog Island used to be. The sea suddenly swept over them. Seven drowned.

''Every time a sandbar or shoal forms out there,'' Mr. Lucev said, ''every time a ship runs aground, we call it the ghost of Hog Island.''

Covering the Storm on Hog Island

At 8 P.M. on Wednesday, Aug. 23, the hurricane of 1893 blew into New York, and the race was on among the city's newspapermen. Which paper would inform and enthrall readers the next morning? Apparently, only one: The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Judging from a random look at microfilm in the New York Public Library, which failed to note whether the copies were early or late editions, most sheets reported on the storm in their Friday editions.

The Times redeemed itself, however, with what looked like the most comprehensive coverage, with datelined articles from several spots in Westchester County, New Jersey, Long Island -- and Hog Island. Others barely mentioned the little island, if at all. But The Times devoted about 500 words to it in its Friday and Saturday issues, describing how Stephen Stillwagon had rescued Patrick Craig's family in ''a story of heroism.''

In Manhattan, The Times reported Friday, ''hundreds of chimneys were tossed down like playthings, and roofs were ripped off as if with a knife.'' Telegraph wires fell ''like cotton strings.''

[A-L-E-X]

I might have some curiosity about it. But one thing: it was reanalyzed as a 75-kt Cat 1-- not a Cat 2: http://www.nhc.noaa....f/nws-nhc-6.pdf

Still a good impact for this region.

Oh, wow-- very cool! Sort of like a NY version of Indianola, TX, in a way.

Yes, read that-- especially that rescue story-- it's a really good read

[ORH_wxman]

Hog Island was largely forgotten until the after the December 1992 Nor' Easter, the Army Corpse of Engineers decided to try and restore some of the coastline there and thats when a lot of old artifacts from the 1800s started appearing.

[A-L-E-X]

I might have some curiosity about it. But one thing: it was reanalyzed as a 75-kt Cat 1-- not a Cat 2: http://www.nhc.noaa....f/nws-nhc-6.pdf

Still a good impact for this region.

Oh, wow-- very cool! Sort of like a NY version of Indianola, TX, in a way.

Thanks, it looks like it was about the strength of Belle. Maybe being so close to land while coming due north made it not be as strong as it could have been? Was the 1821 storm also reanalyzed to a 75 kt storm, Josh? Couldn't have been much stronger with that track lol-- it spent a few hundred miles over land before it ever got here.

[A-L-E-X]

Hog Island was largely forgotten until the after the December 1992 Nor' Easter, the Army Corpse of Engineers decided to try and restore some of the coastline there and thats when a lot of old artifacts from the 1800s started appearing.

Yep, I find that interesting that people just forget when a tragedy like that happens. Of course, it was a lot easier to do that before the electronic age lol.

[ORH_wxman]

Oh, wow-- very cool! Sort of like a NY version of Indianola, TX, in a way.

While tragic in some sense, I always find the ghost towns extremely fascinating. Indianola was almost a mini-Galvaston but once it got hit twice, not ever rebuilt, lol. For its day, it had a huge population down there. Didn't it get up to like 6 or 7 thousand for a population?

[HurricaneJosh]

Thanks, it looks like it was about the strength of Belle. Maybe being so close to land while coming due north made it not be as strong as it could have been? Was the 1821 storm also reanalyzed to a 75 kt storm, Josh? Couldn't have been much stronger with that track lol-- it spent a few hundred miles over land before it ever got here.

Official reanalysis only goes back to 1851, so the 1821 cyclone hasn't been covered. It was probably stronger. I think the 1893 cyclone was a bit stronger than Belle-- 75 kt vs. 65 kt-- and it seemed to have more serious impacts.

OK, off to the gym for a late workout-- bye!

[Scott747]

While tragic in some sense, I always find the ghost towns extremely fascinating. Indianola was almost a mini-Galvaston but once it got hit twice, not ever rebuilt, lol. For its day, it had a huge population down there. Didn't it get up to like 6 or 7 thousand for a population?

5k or so before the 75 storm. The town was only partially rebuilt before the 86 storm finished it off with fire doing most of the damage.

One little known fact - After the 86 storm they actually started thinking about building a seawall in Galveston. Obviously they never followed through on it. Seawall idea came up again after the hurricane of 91 and again they didn't pursue it.

[free_man]

So how come everyone remembers the Giants beating the Patriots?

Because no one likes(d) the Patriots and the "cheating" scandal.

No different than the Red Sox coming back from 3-0 and sweeping the Yankees 4 in a row. Yes that series is remembered somewhat, but look at the Yankees resume. Different league historically, although anomalies will happen. It's more remembered by the home town team and fans, not the rest of the world.

Tropically speaking,

Red Sox = DELMARVA Yankees = FLORIDA

[ORH_wxman]

5k or so before the 75 storm. The town was only partially rebuilt before the 86 storm finished it off with fire doing most of the damage.

One little known fact - After the 86 storm they actually started thinking about building a seawall in Galveston. Obviously they never followed through on it. Seawall idea came up again after the hurricane of 91 and again they didn't pursue it.

Thats a fascinating story and a sad one. If Galvaston had built the seawall before 1900, then who know how history would have happened. That was the biggest town back then and more important than Houston.